Exorcising the ghosts of Garci, dagdag-bawas and the Ampatuans

THE two blackest marks on the electoral process are undeniably these: “dagdag-bawas” and the “ Garci” incident. The first piled up woes for the two Pimentels, Nene, then Koko. The second led to many serious questions about the outcome of a presidential election.

Any and all attempts at electoral reforms have been undergirded, consciously or subconsciously, by the imperative to exorcise, with extreme prejudice if necessary, the ghosts of these two ghastly chapters in our electoral history. The passage of the law that mandates the automation of Philippine elections was done with dagdag-bawas as backdrop and point of reference. A manual count of votes was deemed as the prime abettor of electoral fraud.